The present invention relates to stenographic translation systems and methods and in particular to systems and methods capable of unambiguously translating a sequence of stroke symbols to language text consisting of words, phrases, sentences and graphic characters using a minimum amount of computer memory and maximum stroking flexibility.
The process of inputting data either from oral format or written format to computer readable format is generally considered the most time consuming and costly aspect of creating data bases. Conventionally, an operator will type data into a computer utilizing a typewriter. Even at maximum typing speeds of about 100 words per minute, data inputting by this technique has been found to be relatively slow. Each character must be individually inputted in a serial fashion by successively striking the keys representative of those characters. Hence, there is an opportunity for an error each time that a key is depressed and a character input. Furthermore, the speed at which words, phrases and sentences can be inputted to a data base via a conventional typewriter keyboard can be considerably less than the speed at which the words and phrases can be spoken rendering conventional keyboard inputting of data into a computer unworkable.
In order to overcome this speed problem in the Courtroom setting, stenographic machines and methods were developed whereby entire words or phrases could be recorded by a single depression of one or more keys of a stenographic machine. However, the resultant character sequence was not recognizable and required subsequent translation to readable text. Hence, upon completion, the person making the stenographic record would have to translate that record to English or other readable language. This process has been conventionally done by the operator reading the stenographic record and verbalizing a translation of that record in English with the English translation being recorded on tape. The tape has then been given to a person who would listen to the tape and type out the English words on a conventional typewriter keyboard. Obviously, this technique permitted rapid recording of words as they were spoken but required the same typewriter keyboard inputting step as before.
To overcome this translation difficulty, various automatic translation systems have been developed. In general, such systems have required a large dictionary of words consisting of one or more keystroke subsequences and corresponding English translations of those subsequences. When one or more keystrokes were entered by the stenographic keyboard operator, the computer searched the memory until a match could be found. Such systems generally required that all stenographic strokes and their corresponding translation be stored. Each keystroke required a search through all entries in the memory until a match was found. Such systems also lacked flexibility since each stroke variation and its associated translation had to be stored in memory to enable a translation to be made. Even then, such systems suffered from problems of translation ambiguities and the inability to translate certain subsequences of strokes because that subsequence had not been stored in the memory. Also, conventional stenographic translation systems have not accounted for homonyms. Hence, a single keystroke may be used to represent one of several homonyms requiring a person to observe the context and to manually select the correct homonym during editing. Further such systems generally haven't differentiated between suffixes and prefixes which greatly increased the time necessary to translate the stenographic input.
Because of the above problems, computerized translation systems have been ill suited for real time translation. Furthermore, such translation systems require significant editing time to clean up inherent stroking and translation ambiguities and untranslatable stroke subsequences.
By contrast, the present invention provides a real time translation system which utilizes a predefined stenographic stroking methodology, whereby complete and unambiguous translation of English, and any other language capable of expression by stenographic means, from stenographic keystroke format to English or other language format, can be accomplished thereby greatly reducing errors and editing by the operator while increasing stroking flexibility. Furthermore, the present invention significantly reduces the number of storage locations required to store keystrokes and corresponding language translations since individual stroke/word combinations need not be individually stored in the vast majority of cases. This enables the translation system to be completely portable and capable of being entirely contained in a single unit with the keyboard itself. Because translation is done in real time, the steno keyboard can, for the first time, replace the conventional computer typewriter keyboard of existing hardware and can be used to control peripherals such as word processors and the like. This allows the present system to readily interface with virtually any existing computer hardware. The present system also includes an arrangement of the stored dictionary which facilitate searching thereby enabling the present system to generate an accurate real time translation of spoken words. Such a system is particularly suitable for inputting data directly into a computer at speeds ranging up to five times faster than the conventional typewriter keyboard imputting method.